When I was in my second year of life my sister, Bethann was born. My sister Theresa was born two years later. 10 years and one week after Jamie was born, my sister Kathleen arrived. I talk, email, text and visit with my sisters, their husbands and their growing families frequently.
I spent my youth in a big family with most of my relatives and extended family nearby. Though we have a very close family, there has always been someone from the family in Europe. When I was young, my Uncle Michael, my mother’s brother, was a yacht captain and spent most of the year in the Mediterranean and some of the year in the Caribbean. Every so often he would dock in Philadelphia and we as kids would get to explore ‘his’ boat. My grandfather Michael Rodolico is the greatest person I have ever known. When my oldest cousin was 12, my grandfather took him to Corfu, Greece to visit my Uncle Michael. As I grew older Michael came home and my cousin Robert moved to Rome and still lives there to this day. Some think Robert never really came back from that first trip to Corfu. So an eye was always on the old world and my sense of adventure quietly kept me intrigued in the travelers of the family.
My parents had all their children at a young age. They had many close friends from their childhood still around as when I was young. Our house was action packed. There was always something happening. We all played sports, usually on multiple teams at once. And without actually realizing it, we had a great childhood. I had adventure in the woods, summers in Wildwood, NJ and a rich culture of food from the Sicilian side of the family and hearty laughs from the Irish side of the family. When I was in 8th grade, my cousin Jeff was hit by a car while riding his bicycle home one afternoon. We lost Jeff that day at the age of nine. It crushed our family, especially my Uncle Timmy, but we all battled through. Uncle Tim is my Godfather, one of the funniest people I have ever met and we remain close to this day. I went to St. Peter’s Parochial School in Riverside, NJ. However, in 5th grade I grew fed up with the education I was receiving. The atmosphere was miserable and I wasn’t feeling challenged. I rebelled and asked to be switched to a new class. The old Catholic school was reluctant to say the least. But in the end I was granted the opportunity to switch teachers. I knew then that this ‘special right’ was granted to me partially because I had excellent grades but mostly because my father stood shoulder to shoulder with me in a firm but fair opposition to the regime. Still, I was very unhappy and bored and left the school the following year. During those years of 5th and 6th grade my father took on a new employee at his small trucking company. Tom Connors Senior had moved up from South Carolina with his son, Tommy, ahead of his wife and 4 daughters. Tommy Connors was almost exactly 1.5 years older than me and 1.5 younger than my brother. Tommy spent most nights at our house with me and my brother. He taught me how to play guitar. We started a sort of duo-band and played together at our school’s talent show. We opened and closed the show. I’m fairly certain that was my musical peak at age 13.
Later that year I transferred to Chester Avenue Middle School for 7th grade. The school ranged from 6th to 8th grade, a good range of early adolescence. I had a great deal of fun at this school and it opened my world up. It was a big deal for me to switch to the ‘public’ school as the first of my entire family of Sicilian Catholics on my Mother’s side and Irish Catholics on my Father’s side. This included my older brother and three sisters. I felt the need to do well and prove to them that it was the best move. Classes were more challenging and diverse. I received very good grades and in 8th grade, I ran for class president and won. I’m very certain that was my political peak at age 15.
I have many friends I still keep in touch with today from my hometown who I met during my middle school years. However, the next year I was to go to Holy Cross High School in South Jersey. This again opened my world up and my circle of friends grew. I was now attending the only parochial school in the largest county of the heavily populated state of New Jersey. Some students commuted up to 60 miles each way. I, however, walked most days as it was actually closer to my house then the public high school in the town. I played football & golf for the high school, basketball in a CYO league, worked at my father’s warehouse or my uncle’s pallet company in the winter, and as a greens-keeper during the summer at Willowbrook Country Club. I kept very busy throughout the year.
Jamie and Danny behind the bar at McCrossen's Tavern
When I was a sophomore in high school my father and Uncle Michael (my mother’s brother) partnered up in business. On frequent trips into the city as a kid we either went to our Aunts homes in South Philadelphia to visit my Grandfather’s four widowed sisters or we went into the Fairmont area to visit with my Father’s side of the family. My father’s Uncle Neil McCrossen owned and ran a bar that had been in the family since prohibition. It was not really a place for kids. It was called McCrossens but was better known as ‘The Dustbowl’. No sign was out front on the converted brick row home that was built in 1852 on the corner of 20th & Nectarine (just south of Spring Garden St.). Our Uncle Neil was a consummate gentleman behind the bar. He could settle any argument with a smile, reason and good old fashion Irish diplomacy. But Uncle Neal was ready to move on with an ailing wife at home and was growing tired of the business. My father, mother and Uncle Michael purchased the bar, the license and the row home next door. The renovation was a family affair and it opened as one of the first gastro pubs in Philadelphia when I was 17. My brother began to bartend there when I was 18. A new reality had arrived. McCrossen’s Tavern had opened blocks from the Philadelphia Art Museum. I became cosmopolitan overnight. When I was a junior in High School I traveled to Italy. It was a rare and amazing journey that took me from Rome, to Salerno, down to Messina and onto the ferry to Sicily. I will never forget the ferry ride to Sicily, a truly pacifying moment. It was the exact moment I realized I would travel the rest of my life. Seeing Mt. Etna, smoking in the distance over the town from the top of the amphitheater was a high I wanted to experience over and over again.
The Greek Amphitheater in Taormina, Sicily near Mt. Etna
In 1995 my father and I hustled to work out the financial aid deal of a lifetime for me to attend The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. I was awarded some grant money and special consideration because I was a student athlete. But it was by no means a scholarship. I played in 8 or 9 games as a defensive end for the University football team while experiencing occasional back issues. The following summer I slipped three discs in my back while working out and my career ended right then. I had once again reached the peak of another career. However, this in hindsight was one of the more fortunate occurrences of my life. I suddenly had more free time. I began bartending illegally at the age of 19 and eventually got a job at one of the best bars in Georgetown.
In 1997 I traveled on an exchange to Leuven, Belgium. Somewhere along the way in my studies at CUA I went from a business major, to undecided, to a World Politics major with a Philosophy minor. I consciously decided to study something that both intrigued me and would not choose as a career. Realizing I would be in financial debt for quite some time, I knew I was not dirty enough for a career in politics and no one has ever made money being a philosopher, especially in their 20s. I applied for an internship with the European Parliament. This was before the Euro currency and the expansion of the EU. It was a very exciting time and I was living in the heart of Europe, just outside Brussels. I commuted two or three days a week skidding on slick cobblestones on a hard wheeled bicycle wearing a business suit to a train that took me into Brussels. The other days of the week I studied European Community history, European Art History and European Economics. I wondered a bit through Europe and even surprised and an old girlfriend in Seville, Spain. I saw a Flamenco show there and I still remember the entire experience vividly. It was the best guitar playing I had ever seen or heard.
Throughout college I would visit home and spend many hours either working or hanging out at McCrossen’s Tavern. It always felt exciting to be at McCrossen’s in those early days. The new American food movement had begun. Until then it was virtually unheard of for a Tavern to have excellent food, especially in Philly. Our combination of a cozy tavern atmosphere and finer and comfort cuisine was a big hit. We poured strong drinks, served good wine and had some very fun and interesting people working at the establishment. I quickly knew many people and places throughout the city.
During my tenure at CUA, I threw two very large parties in my backyard. It was a true team effort of characters that put these debacles together. We were not a fraternity, just a group of highly motivated socialites of various talents. In a small backyard in Northeast Washington DC, for two consecutive springs season parties, we hosted 3 live bands, 50 kegs of beer, and a giant mess to clean up at the end. With the business minds involved, we actually managed to handsomely pay three bands, a beer distributor, local liquor store, a portable toilet company, two neighborhood barbequers, pay our rent for two months and of course make a decent amount of profit to split between eleven guys . When all was said in done, no real damage occurred, and the headlining band asked me to become their manager.
Seeking Homer shot from backstage at Irving Plaza, New York City,
February 2001. Photograph by Andrew Kelly.
So after a short stint working on an SAP inventory system and helping manage a warehouse for Nabisco in Northeast Philadelphia, I left in 2000 to manage the band Seeking Homer from the Bronx, NY. Tommy Connors was the lead guitar player and one of the singers. He, as it turned out, had not hit his musical peak. Seeking Homer was an Americana Rock and Jam band with 3-part-harmonies, interesting song writing and a tight sound. They quickly became known as a great, hard-working touring act throughout the eastern part of the USA. In 2000 we released a live album from the legendary Wetlands in Tribeca, NYC. We toured virtually non-stop doing around 250 shows a year at bars, rock clubs, colleges, high schools, pig roasts, and virtually any place in our path that had a stage and at least a small bit of cash. On their 2nd studio album they recorded a version of the National Anthem with acoustic guitars and dramatic finish that was featured on NBC during the US Open. For a brief time, we were flung into the national spotlight.
On September 11th 2001, like most people in New York, we all lost many friends. It was a scary and odd time to be in New York. I still don’t think a large part of the country truly understands that. I’ll never forget driving across the George Washington Bridge on September 13th, smelling the burnt air, seeing the rescue efforts light up lower Manhattan and feeling as though at any moment an airplane could crash into the bridge I was crossing. Everyone around NYC during that time had those feelings for months and months.
As the members of Seeking Homer got older, married and began to have children, I had settled back into a job at McCrossen’s Tavern managing and bartending 6 nights a week. I had been living in the Art Museum area of the city for some years now and was also helping out some other independent musicians in the blooming music scene of Philadelphia. I also began taking classes at The Wine School of Philadelphia. My passion for wine increased and my desire for a new career was increasing. When I asked the owner of the WSP what I had to do to become a part of this industry he said one word: Chemistry. I began looking for schools throughout the world in early 2007.
During the time I spent working at McCrossen’s I was always intrigued by New Zealand wines. My parents had went there on their very belated honeymoon and 25th wedding anniversary. Maybe I was jealous that someone in the family had traveled that far. In January of 2008 I moved to Hawkes Bay, New Zealand and began studying full time at the Eastern Institute of Technology. Within a month of my arrival I met my mentor, Jenny Dobson at TeAwa Winery in the Gimbett Gravels where I was working in the restaurant. Jenny quickly pulled me into the winery where I became obsessed with the process. It was a strange time at TeAwa though and I will never forget the way the owners treated the employees there. Shortly after Jenny left I went to work at Vidal Estate, one of New Zealand’s oldest and respected producers. By the summer time when EIT was finished I began working 5 days a week in the winery, 3 nights a week in the restaurant and weekend days in the tasting room. It was all I could do to keep my head above water. In April of 2009 my sister Bethann was married while I was working in the receival area at Vidal Winery amidst a 12 hour shift.
Jenny Dobson, Winemaker
I made my first wine in 2008, an un-oaked Chardonnay. I thought it was pretty OK and I brought some home on a trip in December and people really enjoyed it. In 2009 while working at Vidal, Jenny introduced me to Philip Horn at Unison Vineyard, where she had become the consultant winemaker. They graciously allowed me to make a bit of Malbec in their winery. I was there so much that they eventually hired me later that year. I was incredibly happy to be working for Jenny again. Her ties to the old world, passion for everything wine and her willingness to share it with young winemakers is unmatched.
Ocean Beach, Hawkes Bay, my local beach
I also partnered up with a friend’s father to begin Sauvignon Blanc production. It was a loose agreement but we sorted it out. All the while I had been working the emails and phones back to the USA. In June of 2009 I released my first two wines at McCrossen’s Tavern. This was a dream come true and one I look to repeat for the rest of my life. In 2010 I continued my work with Jenny at Unison Vineyard and also finished my 3 year degree at EIT. During my last year I did a research project through EIT on foliar seaweed sprays and their effect on harvest parameters and botrytis.
I spent most of December 2010 and January 2011 on the east coast of the USA setting up my business and establishing the Decibel brand in a few states. I was able to attend my sister Kathleen’s wedding on New Year’s Eve in Philadelphia. But I experienced entirely too many snow storms and shoveled out many cars and driveways. Though that wasn’t the only reason why I realized I missed New Zealand very much.
My Malbec Harvest
Working at Unison Vineyard
I returned on February 1st 2011 to New Zealand and moved into a small house with some other young winemakers on the Bridge Pa vineyard in The Triangle region of Hawkes Bay. This is home.
I set up my office at my new residence. Harvest was a wet one in most of New Zealand this past year. I bought a new record player and we began playing vinyl and sitting on the back deck near the vines. As harvest began to wind down I began to apply for intern positions throughout California and Cahors, France. After a fairly short time, I took a position at Piňa Napa Valley where I quickly adjusted to the West Coast of the USA.
My experience at Piňa Napa Valley has been a very positive one. I particularly liked the opportunity to work in the various vineyards from which Piňa sources fruit. I learned a great deal and it has been a joy to work with people who take my input seriously as well. It was a challenging harvest but I think the wines are going to impress those who have the opportunity to drink them. I look forward to tasting these wines in a couple of years when they are released. I also look forward to keeping in touch with Macario, Anna and all four Piňa Brothers.
Enjoying a glass of wine on the back porch at
the house in The Triangle, Bridge Pa, Hawkes Bay
Cheers!
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